Friday, 20 February 2015

In January I asked you ‘How’s
My Tweeting’ to get feedback on my use of Twitter so that I could improve
how I connect with and help you through this medium.

The results are in! Here’s a link to the
full results, but I’ll summarise the findings and what I intend to do
differently below.In my interpretation
of the results I’ve tried to avoid looking too deeply into individual things
said but to be more influenced by trends across a range of comments (with the
exception of those from Mrs F – love you too!).

Limitations

I got 47 responses to the survey with many answering all the questions.
I really only expected about a dozen, so this is amazing! I am really grateful to anyone of you 47
lovely people who took the time to give me feedback; thank you.The down-side is that, from my almost 12,000
followers, this not a statistically representative sample and also
self-selected, probably by those who mainly agree with what I tweet.Therefore, I will be careful in my
interpretation, but I will work with this response and treat it with respect due
to the time generously given by you 47 to help me to improve my use of Twitter.

The Results

Q1. Have you ever read my #ThoughtForTheDay shared daily at 8.00am?

About a 1/3 to 2/3
split with the majority having seen this.This is encouraging, as it’s a part of my presence on Twitter that’s important
to me and I’m glad it’s seen by the majority of those who responded to the
survey.

Q2. If you answered YES to the previous question (Q1), please describe
how useful/relevant this is to you?

In the main a
positive vibe from what people have said and many find it a useful start to the
day. Some who do see it, but not until later in the day, also found it useful.I’ll therefore continue to share my daily
thought, but due to comments made in response to other questions I will try to
share more of my own personal thoughts and not just quote others’ that I’ve
found inspiring/thought-provoking.

Q3. What kind of information
do you want to see me share?

Really interesting to have such a positive
response to “Health-Related News”, which I will now try to share more of.I will also share less “Non-Health-Related
News”, as there was a much smaller level of support for this.Also interesting was the muted enthusiasm for
my sharing Tweetchat summaries and word-clouds, which I will still share, but
perhaps in a lesser quantity.All the
other areas I will continue to share in similar ways as I have done from your
responses of support.

Q4. Who/what kind of people
should I spend more time engaging with through Twitter?

The overwhelming response to this was to continue
what I’m doing, to engage with as broad a range of people as possible, but with
particular focus on front-line healthcare staff.There was also some support for me to
increase my engagement with those outside of healthcare provision, such as
people in politics/policy arenas to try to have greater influence.I have previously shied away from this in any
large way, but will now aim to do more, with your support.There were a few comments in response to this
and other questions suggesting I should engage more with the voluntary sector, which
I will also strive to improve on.

Q5. How can I engage better
and have better conversations?

As for the last question, a lot of support for
continuing in the same vein as now.There were some helpful suggestions about adding more of my own
thoughts, ideas, opinions and personality when I share information or links to
resources.I also really valued the
couple of comments about my blog and how I could connect across/between this
and others’ blog-posts to add value to both.

Q6. How serious should I be
in conversations on Twitter; let me know your thoughts?

From your response
to this I took that the majority, but certainly not all, think that an element
of fun is important on Twitter.I take from
this that it’s important for this side of my personality to shine through and I
will continue.

Q7. Do you have any other
comments, questions, or concerns?

Further support
for continuing as I have been and also some helpful suggestions of what in
particular I should continue doing, such as maintaining my real-world
personality on Twitter.There was
definite support for retaining the fun in what I do, but balancing this
appropriately with the topic I’m engaging on.

Summary

I am grateful for your honest and constructive feedback.I will in the main continue as I have been in
how I use Twitter, but there are some key areas that I will improve on.These include, but aren’t exclusive to: increasing
my engagement with political/policy people and those from the voluntary sector;
make connections between my blog and others; share my views on information/links
I share; and retain my sense of fun in appropriate ways.